Hey guys. So, this year I applied to about 15 PhD programs, and got rejected from all of them. I did get accepted to Teacher's College Columbia MA in Psych, and to Rutgers MSW program. I've been "in the field" now for four years - the first two years as a Clinical Research Coordinator, the second two as a Counselor (doing group counseling - somehow we're titled "Counselor" despite just having the bachelors). After the first two years I applied to about 9 schools, also getting rejected. I'm really, really tired of these lateral movements. In my gut, I know I want and need more. My understanding is that the MA in Pysch at Columbia offers nothing but an enhanced likelihood of acceptance into their (or some other?) PhD program. The MSW at Rutgers isn't quite the same as clinical psychology, but at least at the end of the two years, I'll have some sort of a license to practice. *I do, want to do research, by the way. My thoughts are that while I'm in the program, I'll try to reach out to faculty in the clinical psych department, to develo raport and work with them, and possibly, via that route, enhance my likelihood of getting into their PhD program in the future (somewhat similar to the way Columbia's program works). I am not a fan of living in the city (at all), although I would have been willing to uproot everything in a minute to go to Columbia's PhD program. For their MA program, on the other hand, it seems like a huge inconvenience (lifestyle wise and financially) for a risky situation, compared to the MSW at Rutgers. By the way, my stats are GPA: 3.88, GRE: 154, 157, 4.5, the experience listed above (and an article that's almost submitted,but, we know that doesn't count).
Thanks so much for your input. I've got about... 4 days to decide.